Charlie was not exactly averse to change… but he wasn't wholly in favour of it, either. Change was, he thought, usually bad—Renee divorcing him, Bella's first boyfriend, Bella's first boyfriend leaving, Bella's first boyfriend coming back. Charlie had long ago decided that change was just better avoided in general. Maybe it would only take one event to change his opinion, but so far that one event hadn't happened, and so Charlie avoided change as much as possible.
xXxXx
There was a time when it hadn't been awkward. A time when they'd just been two people working together, the cop and the doctor. Their jobs had a lot of common ground, especially in Forks where accidents were very common. And they had got on well, like any pair of colleagues should.
But then came the time when it had been awkward. All of a sudden, he was following the doctor out of the elevator on floor four when he had meant to go to floor six and not knowing whether he should shake hands when he left or jest say goodbye and leave it at that.
Suddenly he couldn't make small talk without becoming hyperaware of everything he did or said, without reddening, without getting flustered. It hadn't altered his job performance—yet. Charlie figured it was only a matter of time before something happened again and he became unable to work with Carlisle Cullen like a civilised human being.
Today he had stopped by to see Bella after she had fallen down a flight of stairs at school. Again. She'd only needed an arm cast, thank God, and so he'd reluctantly left her alone with the Cullen boy. He had followed Carlisle right out of the room like a little puppy; he could blame it on habit, he supposed. He was so used to leaving the deceased's family along with Carlisle, allowing them time to grieve, that when the doctor had started to leave, he had followed.
Realising his mistake halfway across the room, he had stopped dead in his tracks, but Carlisle had turned and given him what he swore could only be described as a "come-hither" look, and so he had gone thither as commanded.
When he pushed through the heavy swinging doors now, there was no one in sight.
"Carlisle?" he called out. He ventured forth a few steps, looking around. A couple of nurses, but no Carlisle. He was just walking at a normal pace when someone grabbed his arm and dragged him down a hallway.
The world spun and swam before righting itself, and now Charlie was pressed against the white, sterile walls a deserted hallway with someone holding down his shoulders. He focussed his eyes and stared at the doctor smirking at him. Their eyes were just about level, Carlisle being only an inch or two taller than Charlie. And the eyes were getting closer, until all he could see was amber, and it was his whole world until the doctor began to talk.
"What's changed, Charlie?" he asked, voice lower than Charlie had ever heard it drop. "What's changed?" he repeated in a mere murmur.
Charlie, stunned, didn't answer, couldn't answer. He wondered if he was even being asked the question or if Carlisle was posing it to himself. Carlisle's eyes flickered downwards, and whatever he saw made him step impossibly closer. Any closer, Charlie thought, and they would melt into one person…
Again, Carlisle's eyes were on his, and he asked permission with the tilt of his head, with the way his lips parted almost imperceptibly. Also almost imperceptibly was the nod Charlie gave him, the dropped glance, eyes fixed to the doctor's mouth, which moved forward until lips tentatively touched lips. Charlie sighed into the kiss. The awkwardness that had been building up for such a long time deflated completely, leaving the feeling of Carlisle kissing him. And now the time of awkwardness had meaning—it was a bridge between an easy colleague relationship, and this.
But something told him to shut up and kiss him back, and Charlie obeyed that part of his brain enough to part his lips and allow Carlisle to lip his tongue into his mouth, playing against Charlie's teeth teasingly. He didn't know what had happened, but his arms were around Carlisle's thin body and the doctor's hands were threaded deeply in his hair and they were tangled tightly up in each other, mouths moving against each other with a determined laziness.
His lungs were about to burst, but he wanted to keep going, wanted to stay wrapped up in Carlisle's arms. But the doctor pulled back, laughing softly.
"Everything," Charlie gasped.
"Hmm…?"
"Everything's changed," Charlie explained, but Carlisle shook his head.
"Just the opposite, dear Charlie," he murmured, kissing him once more before heading off and away, leaving Charlie confused, yet satisfied.
xXxXx
It wasn't until he had gotten home that Charlie thought about change again. Maybe… maybe some was good. Just maybe, some brought better things with them in the end.